Tag: Arizona State Football

Trojans Wire joins YouTube show to discuss Arizona State game

How banged up is Arizona State? We discussed that aspect of USC’s game vs the Sun Devils with @Tim_Prangley and @MarkRogersTV at the @VoiceOfCFB.

The USC Trojans return to the gridiron this coming Saturday, following a week off which gave the team more time to study film and absorb more knowledge. The Trojans will see how much they have evolved when they play the Arizona State Sun Devils in their first road game of the 2023 college football season.

USC is beginning a nine-week stretch of games without any interruptions. The Trojans will play each Saturday through November 18. This makes it important for the coaching staff to continue to rotate players in and out of the lineup and not overextend the starters. Players will need to be physically fresh for the biggest games on the schedule. They can’t have too many miles on the odometer heading into the game against Notre Dame on October 14 in South Bend.

The Arizona State game is a chance for a lot of guys to get some playing time with no one shouldering too big a workload.

We talked more about this game with Tim Prangley and Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football:

Catch all of Ducks Wire’s Pac-12 team previews for the 2023 season:

Arizona — Arizona State — California — Colorado — Oregon State  — Stanford — UCLA — USC — Utah — Washington — Washington State

Arizona State enters USC game under the worst possible set of circumstances

It truly could not be any worse for ASU as the Sun Devils prepare to face a rested USC team in Week 4. Let’s lay out the details.

Human beings, including people who write about sports, can slide into exaggeration very easily. A specific event or occurrence can easily become “the worst” or “the best” or “the most important” thing in a heartbeat, when of course that’s not even close to being true. However, when we say Arizona State is in the worst possible shape heading into its game against USC on September 23, that’s no exaggeration. Not at all. The Sun Devils truly could not be in a worse set of circumstances than what they’re facing right now.

Unconvinced? We will make sure to spell it all out for you:

Former four-star QB Jacob Conover could start for Arizona State vs USC

Arizona State doesn’t have a lot of good choices. This is probably the healthiest one.

As of Sunday night it was unknown whom Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham will have available to play against USC on Saturday night. For many, it might not matter in a game where USC will be a heavy favorite.

However, it certainly matters to the players who would love the opportunity to play against Caleb Williams and the rest of the Trojans. Jacob Conover, Drew Pyne and Trenton Bourguet are the three quarterbacks who played for Arizona State this past Saturday night. They all struggled. They combined for 17-37 passing, generating 188 yards, five interceptions and two fumbles, leading an offense that was shut out at home for the first time since 1988. ASU lost 29-0 to the Fresno State Bulldogs.

Arizona State QB Jaden Rashada out against USC

ASU’s Day 1 starting QB this season won’t face USC.

Arizona State is beaten up as it prepares to face USC this coming Saturday, September 23.

ASU starting quarterback Jaden Rashada missed Saturday’s contest with Fresno State. He missed the game due to “something that has been lingering since high school that he re-aggravated” versus Oklahoma State in Week 2. He will mis four to six weeks with the injury, head coach Kenny Dillingham said after the Fresno State game.

Backup Trenton Bourguet took over the reins and was hurt on just the second possession of the night with a foot injury.

Then Notre Dame grad transfer Drew Pyne was also injured. He left the game with a different muscle injury in the same leg in which he hurt his hamstring.

After Arizona State’s first three quarterbacks on the depth chart went down, fourth-stringer Jacob Conover stepped in. He could start next week for the Sun Devils against USC.

Bourguet, Pyne and Conover combined for 188 yards on an abysmal 17-for-37 passing rate and didn’t score a single point against Fresno State, losing 29-0.

Offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin and head coach Kenny Dillingham will have their work cut out next week against one of the best offenses in the nation when the Sun Devils host the USC Trojans on Saturday night.

Catch all of Ducks Wire’s Pac-12 team previews for the 2023 season:

Arizona — Arizona State — California — Colorado — Oregon State  — Stanford — UCLA — USC — Utah — Washington — Washington State

USC’s next opponent, Arizona State, gets shut out by Fresno State

USC hasn’t been challenged yet this season. Arizona State doesn’t figure to change that.

The USC Trojans face the Arizona State Sun Devils next Saturday, September 23, in Tempe. The Trojans can’t beat Notre Dame or Utah this Saturday. They have to play the team in front of them. Yet, one has to think the Trojans are spending their off week looking at Notre Dame film and Utah film, not just Arizona State film. It’s not as though the Sun Devils are going to exhaust every last resource the Trojans have.

The Sun Devils are themselves exhausted and very shorthanded.

It showed in their most recent game on Saturday night against Fresno State.

ASU, surprisingly just a three-point underdog despite missing at least five offensive linemen, played like a team which should have been a 33-point underdog. The Sun Devils committed eight turnovers. Three different ASU quarterbacks threw interceptions in this game, including former Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne, who played well for the Irish last year at USC but has far fewer resources around him now in Tempe under first-year head coach Kenny Dillingham.

Final score: Fresno State 29, ASU 0.

Arizona State’s leading passer was quarterback Jacob Conover, who threw for 89 yards and two interceptions.

You get the idea. We’ll have more on Arizona State’s dire situation as the week continues.

Catch all of Ducks Wire’s Pac-12 team previews for the 2023 season:

Arizona — Arizona State — California — Colorado — Oregon State  — Stanford — UCLA — USC — Utah — Washington — Washington State

USC has to play late-night game at Arizona State on Sept. 23 — which is great news

#USC and #Pac12 fans normally hate late-night games, but playing late is great news for the Trojans here. We’ll explain.

The Pac-12’s television selections have been announced for Week 4 of the season on September 23. USC plays at Arizona State, the Trojans’ first road game of their 2023 season.

We know that USC fans and Pac-12 fans hate the late-night kickoffs at 7:30 p.m. in Los Angeles, Seattle, Corvallis, Berkeley, and all other Pacific time zone locations. The Trojans will have to wait until 7:30 p.m. in Tempe, Arizona, for the Week 4 battle against the Arizona State Sun Devils. USC was placed in the late-night slot on Fox Sports.

USC fans might groan and grumble about the late-game placement for September 23, but we are here to tell you this is a good thing for the Trojans.

A night game being good? On the road? In this economy? This is actually one instance in which a night-game kickoff for USC is beneficial to the Trojans. The explanation is not complicated at all.

Let’s go through the details and give you other Pac-12 football information for Week 4 on September 23:

Arizona State OL Emmit Bohles (leg) out for the season

#USC’s next opponent, Arizona State, will be shorthanded on its offensive line.

Arizona State starting offensive lineman Emmit Bohles is done for the season after suffered a season-ending leg injury on the Sun Devils’ opening drive against Oklahoma State on Saturday night.

Bohles, a 6-foot-7 offensive tackle and a graduate student from Northern State (South Dakota), was carted off the field with an apparent leg injury within the first five minutes of the game. An air cast was placed on his left leg.

Bohles was replaced in Saturday’s game by junior Max Iheanachor, a 6-6, 320-pounder. Iheanachor is in his first year in the program after transferring from East Los Angeles Community College. He played basketball rather than football in high school and only took up football when he got to college.

It’s safe to say the Trojans should brining plenty of pressure up front after their off week. In their next game, they travel to Tempe to play Arizona State. USC will face Jaden Rashada and the Sun Devils on September 23 at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time in a Pac-12 after dark clash.

Check out our Pac-12 football predictions roundtable for the 2023 season.

Arizona State football self-imposes one-year bowl ban in midst of NCAA investigation

In the midst of an NCAA investigation, Arizona State has self-imposed a bowl ban for this season

The Arizona State Sun Devils have a new head coach in former Oregon assistant Kenny Dillingham. The program has also been active on the transfer portal, bringing in former Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne, although he ended up losing the job to Jaden Rashada.

As everybody knows, the Herm Edwards era was ugly at Arizona State, and the program has now self-imposed a one-year postseason ban for the 2023 campaign due to potential violations that occurred during Edwards’ time, per Pete Thamel of ESPN.

According to Thamel, ASU was being investigated because of “persistent ignoring of the restrictions implemented during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period.”

With all of the roster changes at Arizona State, a bowl game in 2023 always seemed like a long shot, so getting this ban out of the way now makes sense, although it’s a tough blow for the new coaching regime after getting rid of Edwards.

This makes the decision to hire Edwards in 2017 even more questionable, but at least Arizona State can move on.

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Former Texas LB Juwan Mitchell dismissed from ASU after one week

The former Longhorn was kicked off the team despite only being there for a week of camp.

Sixth-year senior and former Texas and Tennessee linebacker Juwan Mitchell has been shown the door at Arizona State, his third stop in as many years. Continue reading “Former Texas LB Juwan Mitchell dismissed from ASU after one week”

ACC Presidents meet to discuss the addition of Pac-12 teams and conference realignment, per reports

According to reports, the ACC Presidents met on Friday to discuss conference realignment and possibly adding Pac-12 teams.

The landscape of college football will never be the same as conference realignment has completely changed the game.

This past Friday was a crazy day that saw the Pac-12 lose five more conference members as they face the possibility of a full collapse. It started early in the day with Oregon and Washington being announced to join the Big Ten and later with Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State announcing they would join the Big 12.

According to multiple reports, the ACC Presidents met Friday to discuss conference realignment and possibly adding teams from the Pac-12. Per Ross Dellenger, the ACC “seriously explored” adding 5-7 Pac-12 schools as the Pac-12’s future is in question. It appears this will not happen, as the most attractive teams from the conference have already announced departures to the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12.

News & Observer reporter Andrew Carter believes that a merger is now unlikely, as an ACC/Pac-12 merger would’ve cost ACC schools between $1-3 million per year in TV revenue, stating that “no remaining P12 school brought value to the league.” The remaining schools are Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford, and Cal.

There are rumors that the Pac-12 will now explore a merger with the Mountain West. Despite each ACC school’s entry into a Grant of Rights agreement with the ACC through 2036, Florida State brought up the ACC’s potential conference realignment issues on Wednesday. Even with the grant of rights, FSU has been working with JPMorgan to look for a possible way out.

Things are heating up in college football, and the ACC may be the next to be hit with realignment if things don’t play in their favor.

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